Hi AP! It's been a while since I've been here, but as I'm getting back into designing, in particularly learning vectoring, I've come across some issues that I have no idea how to work around/with as I'm learning how to vector.
Currently I'm vectoring in Adobe Illustrator CS3 as I tried for a while to vector in Photoshop CS3 and I couldn't seem to get the hang of it.
I've already done a couple vectors and while I'm getting better at it, theres still a couple issues I have I'd like to ask you all advice on.
My first main issue is the width of my outlines. I trace along the original outline of the image, but sometimes they end up becoming too big or too small in some areas of the outline (I've been outlining by small sections so its easier to manipulate, play with, and see any errors) and as far as I know, there is no tool to gauge the widths of outlines. The ruler hasn't helped me too much as a line is rarely straight down. I'll edit the anchors to try and move them to make the line thinner/larger and look more even, but a lot of times I still can't get it right. Is there a technique or tool to help with this? Should I use as little anchors as possible and just try to move the lines to curve as needed?
My second is choppiness. I know about how to curve anchors, which I do use, but in some cases I just place anchor points where I feel a curve is not needed. Again, how do I decrease the choppiness of my lines. Is it more curves? Less points?
Here is my first finished vector that looked ok, but the outlines were icky choppy (In my opinion, I would not submit it to AP due to the lines. But thats just me, if you think otherwise, let me know. So far my feedback on it has been the crudity of the lines)
And here is one that I'm currently working on. I know some of the outlining is bigger than it should be, which I plan on editing the anchors to get them more conformed (I'll still be keeping outlines on the left smaller than right though to emphasis how she has her head turned), but before I do that, I want to fix the choppy parts of the outline. If I need to completely redo sections of the outline, I'd rather not spend a few hours fixing the size of it only to have to go and just redo the section completely.Kimi Ni Todoke Uncompleted Vector
Thanks in advance for any advice and help! I'd really like to make some beautiful looking vectors.
Edit: By the way, I use to pen tool to create my outline/linework.
Saving…
2 years, 5 months ago
Are you outlining the outline or just going over the outline once, because that could be a major part of your problem?
Edit: looking at it more I can tell that you are only going over the outline with the pen tool. What you need to do is go over the outside of the outline, and then come back around and go around the inside of the outline.
so it should look something like this
||| where the bold lines would be what you drew and the non bold line would be the actual outline
2 years, 5 months ago
Also adding to the person below my comments, less is more in the case of anchor points. The less points you have, the smoother your lines become.
When I look closely at your vectors, the choppy lines are apparent, and this leads me to assume you are not making curves with the pen tool, but rather short series of straight lines.
For how to curve your lines, go here. What you need is beginning from the 8th image, but I recommend you read the whole thing anyway.
Hope this helps (and even it doesn't, I hope this helps someone else!)
2 years, 5 months ago
I would say it's actually best NOT to have lines with even thickness. The varying thickness of lines gives them a more natural and inked/painted look. So don't worry about line thickness too much. What you need to work on is using less anchor points. Less points make smoother curves. With practice you get an idea of where to place them. You can't just trace a scan directly; you must understand the contours of what you're tracing and place approximate curves to replicate it - this will make your work much more fluid and it will be faster to complete this way.
You must click and DRAG when setting new points to create the handle bars and resulting curves. You can adjust the angle of these handle bars (and thus the depth of a curve) together with the white arrow tool (so an anchor point will be smoothly integrated along a path), and separately with the convert point tool (this will make a hard, choppy point at your anchor point). (Press alt and ctrl as you're working for easy access) I believe when you place new points on a curve in Illustrator, the new point is integrated as a choppy point. You must correct these new points with the white arrow or convert point tool to make them smooth. In photoshop it seamlessly integrates new points, so I find photoshop's pen tool more friendly to use in this case.
See my vectoring tutorial for more details and troubleshooting tips. I made it precisely to help new vector artists. :)
1 year, 4 months ago
Do you export your files from Illustrator to Photoshop? That could be solve your choppiness problem.